I use panel data to examine whether long-term changes in industry wages are positively related to long-term changes in industry employment. Previous research using repeated cross-sectional data found no systematic relationship between these variables. Using standard fixed effects models to deal...

This paper examines the factors that influence transitions into self-employment, paying particular attention to gender differences. We find that: (i) men are more responsive to the wage differential between wage/salaried employment and self-employment; (ii) liquidity constraints are more...

A discussion of sticky nominal wages, showing that nominal income or price-level targeting policies result in smaller distortions than do policies that target output or money.

Employment in the information technology (IT) field rose rapidly during the late 1990s. Many IT employees are foreign born and are working in the United States with H-1B visas-temporary nonimmigrant visas issued for terms of up to six years. Critics of the H-1B program contend that it reduces...

During the recovery from the 2001 recession, the business press and economic analysts used payroll employment data released monthly by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as evidence of protracted weakness in the labor market. But using these monthly releases for this type of analysis can...

How does the location of new jobs in a metropolitan area affect the suburban housing market? Does it matter whether job growth occurs in the city or in the suburbs? And who, if anyone, benefits from job growth? Dick Voith takes a look at housing prices and construction rates in some Philadelphia...

Jerry Carlino points out that the fortunes of local economies usually depend on a confluence of national, sectoral, and local shocks. That, in turn, raises the question: Does one type of shock systematically buffet local economies more than another? The answer has important implications for both...